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Perestroika, glasnost, democratization. “… the fateful Soviet years from 1985 to 1991” “…when four great transformations - even … revolutions - were begun.

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Presentation on theme: "Perestroika, glasnost, democratization. “… the fateful Soviet years from 1985 to 1991” “…when four great transformations - even … revolutions - were begun."— Presentation transcript:

1 Perestroika, glasnost, democratization

2 “… the fateful Soviet years from 1985 to 1991” “…when four great transformations - even … revolutions - were begun under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev: attempts to transform the authoritarian political system into some kind of democracy, the state command economy into a market-based one, the Moscow dominated “union” into an authentic federation, and the country’s forty-year Cold War with the West into a ‘strategic partnership’.” (Stephen F. Cohen)

3  Eduard Shevardnadze becomes Foreign Minister, proclaims the “Sinatra doctrine”

4  1985 December Gorbachev brings Eltsin to Moscow to head the party apparatus for the city  1987 Eltsin criticizes Gorbachev openly in Committee, divested of power

5  "Struggle against alcoholism” May 1985-1990  Clumsy program of destroying vineyards, increasing cost of vodka, closing beer halls  Government propaganda created resentment  Loss of 10 billion Rubles of state income  Huge growth in production of samogon

6  February – March First mention of perestroika at Party Congress  April: Chernobyl disaster  December: Sakharov brought back from exile in Gorky

7  February 1986 27th Party Congress  Objective: “acceleration” of the economy, overcome stagnation  Restructuring of the economy, injecting reality into targets and prices, allowing enterprises to make their own decisions, keep the profits from new enterprises and production  Central planning and control remained: half-way solution Perestroika

8  January at Plenum of Politburo economic and political reforms announced  Rehabilitation of victims of Stalin announced  Eltsin attacks Gorbachev, resigns from Politburo

9  The year of glasnost  March: Nina Andreyeva’s letter in Sovetskaya Rossiya  May: Law on cooperatives, allowing private business  June: Gorbachev proposes a new Congress of People’s deputies  December Armenian Earthquake, 45,000 killed.

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11 The move to a free economy  Inspired by the NEP (Lenin’s New Economic Policy) of the 1920s  May 1988 Law on cooperatives - essentially private businesses - approved  Private banks began to be allowed  Russian businesses permitted to deal with foreign partners directly

12 Problems with perestroika No rules to govern private economy: laws, contract enforcement  Criminals quickly learned to exploit system: take-overs of businesses, protection rackets  Prices not decontrolled; budget had huge deficit, money printed to cover deficit led to huge increase in real price inflation  Profits syphoned into offshores  Shortages continued: perestroika discredited

13  Theory: Open discussion of problems as a means to achieve real efficiencies  By 1988 censorship lifted from literature, film, the arts. Now Soviet citizens can read anything…  Led to questions about “blind spots” of history: Katyn execution of Polish officers, the hidden protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939, the Gulags and Stalin’s show trials, esp. Nikolai Bukharin

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15  Approved by 19 th Party Conference in July 1988  Objective: Transfer of control of state from Party to semi-elected Congress of People’s Deputies and Supreme Soviet elected by it  750 members from districts, 750 from territories, 750 from “public organizations” including 100 from Communist Party: First meeting 1989.  15 March 1990 Congress elected President of the USSR.

16  January – February withdrawal from Afghanistan  March-April Elections to Congress  June Tianan Men Square incident in China: dissidence suppressedTianan Men Square  9 November Berlin Wall comes downBerlin Wall  November – December Communists ousted throughout Soviet bloc: GDR, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania.  December 14: Sakharov dies

17  Open discussion of Molotov-Ribbentrop pactMolotov-Ribbentrop  As central power was loosened, republics begin to demand their languages be given prime status over Russian: Ukrainian, Georgian, etc.  Baltic Republics Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and also Moldova (formerly Bessarabia) demand and start to declare their independence

18  Germany is being reunited  Other Soviet bloc members “do it their way”  Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace  Gorbachev chosen president of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR  BUT crisis looms in Soviet leadership: Yakovlev, Shevardnadze forced out in December. Is another Tiananmen looming?

19  September 9 Alexander Men murdered  September: Battle over 500 Days reform program for economy

20  Ended Cold War  Brought the USSR out of Afghanistan  Moved USSR towards elected democracy and free economy  Nearly succeeded in saving a reformed USSR

21  Was he a “dissident” or a “Menshevik”?  Many reforms resembled those proposed by Sakharov  Remained wedded to Communist Party  Economic difficulties created by gradual reforms made him deeply unpopular.


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